Feedback taken on board, so how does this cover tweak grab you?

Thanks to all those who commented on the Bike to Work Book cover design. There were some excellent home truths contained in some of the comments.

I’ve gone back to the cover, removed one of the offending statements (”join the revolution”) and enlarged some of the other text and the base pix.

How do you like this version?



There’s still plenty of time to improve the cover before we set the presses in motion so tell us what you think. Don’t hold back, yesterday’s commenters certainly didn’t…

A number of people said they weren’t keen on the distressed font so I’ve changed it. Like this one? Click to see it bigger - the book will be 18cms wide.



If the covers above don’t tickle your fancy, how about this one by Joseph of the US?



And this here is the first cover. Maybe you like this one best?



It’s critical we get this right. You can always tell a book from its cover, and all that jazz. Here are two examples of how a designer can get it wrong. Both are for the same book, the traffic book I raved about here.





The yellow sign version is for the US edition of Tom Vanderbilt’s book. The dog version is the one for the UK market. The former is excellent, the latter may be an attention grabber but it’s also mystifying. Dogs driving cars? I understand the metaphor, but I think it’s a poorly executed cover. Maybe the publisher should have done what I’ve done here and sought some wider feedback?

Mind you, the book is a far, far better read than you’d think from the subject matter and I reckon any cover would have struggled to get across what the book is about.